The random thoughts and musings caused by prolongued exposure to bus travel, mad family members and a steadily growing collection of singing potatoes. In short a load of nonsense as and when i get particularly bored

Thursday, 4 April 2013

It Must Be Thursday: A Touch Of Class?

The ongoing saga of a weekly That-Was-The-Week-That-Was posting.

Commenting on things that caught my attention for better or for
worse and left me shaking my fist at the sky and shouting "Whyyyy!!!"

After all: until science brings us a better use for Thursdays - what else is there to do?

Even after all these years and despite our best attempts to show you otherwise I'd be willing to bet that most people in the world think of the English, when they think of us at all, as belonging to one of two groups:

Cor-blimey Guv'nor, rough and ready cockneys, wheeling and dealing, our hands covered in dirt and a song in our heart (preferably with the refrain "have a banana")

But according to a new report published on the BBC website there are no longer three classes in Britain (always thought of as Upper, Middle and Working), but seven:

The site says:

We devised a new way of measuring class, which
doesn't define class just by the job that you do, but by the different
kinds of economic, cultural and social resources or 'capitals' that
people possess.

We asked people about their income, the value of their home
and savings, which together is known as 'economic capital', their
cultural interests and activities, known as 'cultural capital' and the
number and status of people they know, which is called 'social capital'.

Elite: This is the most privileged class in
Great Britain who have high levels of all three capitals. Their high
amount of economic capital sets them apart from everyone else.

Established Middle Class: Members of this
class have high levels of all three capitals although not as high as the
Elite. They are a gregarious and culturally engaged class.

Technical Middle Class: This is a new, small
class with high economic capital but seem less culturally engaged. They
have relatively few social contacts and so are less socially engaged.

New Affluent Workers: This class has medium
levels of economic capital and higher levels of cultural and social
capital. They are a young and active group.

Emergent Service Workers: This new class has
low economic capital but has high levels of 'emerging' cultural capital
and high social capital. This group are young and often found in urban
areas.

Traditional Working Class: This class scores
low on all forms of the three capitals although they are not the poorest
group. The average age of this class is older than the others.

Precariat: This is the most deprived class of
all with low levels of economic, cultural and social capital. The
everyday lives of members of this class are precarious.

From the descriptions above it seems that these classes are not cast in stone and that you can move between one and another - after all a New Affluent Worker is described as "young", whereas "traditional working class" is an older group

First of all the test asks you about your income: what do you own, how much you have saved

Secondly it asks you about the kind of people you hang out with: is it cleaners or company directors, teachers or lorry drivers

Third it asks for some of your interests: do you go to the opera, use facebook, listen to jazz, do arts and crafts, listen to hip-hop...

But the upshot is a lot of assumptions about what your interests say about you:

For instance i would probably go to stately homes if i could afford to take the trip, I occasionally listen to classical music but would argue that knowing a call centre worker is no different from knowing a company director (after all: it could be any size company)

And what if Prince Charles is a secret fan of Snoop Dogg? Does that lower him from being Elite class?

And now that I am no longer described as "young man" by even the most kindly of pensioners does this mean that I cannot belong to any of the groups mainly inhabited by the young?

Personally I don't think this new classing thing will take off - its too complicated for people to really get their heads around

And besides: if they do catch on then how are we going to award next year's Upper Class Twit Of The Year?

About Me

Too much latent creativity is bad for the soul. Too many people allow their ideas to slosh around their heads before evaporating into the ether. To combat this D.F.T.P. have set up this blog to allow vent to all those odd thoughts that keep you awake at 4am and would otherwise go unshared.